It is years since terrorists have been doing attacks systematically and killing innocent people in other countries of the European Union.

Just before the summer holiday, on my desk in Brussels, there appeared the current issue of a known EU newspaper. It includes a photo of the vice-president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, who announced a coordinated fight of the European Union with terrorism. He spoke about necessity of introducing new EU provisions in order to stop financing terrorists.

I asked myself if Timmermans, beside investigating ‘dictatorship’ in Hungary and in Poland (from the Constitutional Tribunal through the Białowieska Puszcza) would have time for it? Will he be effective? I mean he and the Commission which he represents. Maybe but surely not at once. For a few weeks later there was another terrorist assassination, this time in Spain, in Barcelona. A driver of a van drove onto a pavement, onto a group of people. Driving zigzag, he killed a dozen of people, causing a lot of injured and he escaped. The Spanish services reacted quite quickly and what? People were killed again. Nearly at once I received private photo and a video of that event. A Polish monk was just going along an unlucky street. Luckily, the van with a terrorist passed by him a few meters away. And just before his journey, in fact, a pilgrimage, I had been teasing him, saying: why making a journey? Our beautiful country has also got a lot of sanctuaries. And it is much safer here. But, on the other hand, do we, as the citizens of the European Union, have to be frightened of every journey and be so scared to decide to stay in Lublin, Toruń or Warsaw?

It is years since terrorists have been doing attacks systematically and killing innocent people in other countries of the European Union. Recently, in Great Britain, before in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Recently also in Finland, where according to surveys, every second Finn expects a terrorist attack. People are scared. Terrorists, besides explosive charges or firearm, are using knives, vans or chemicals more and more frequently. In the opinion of experts, the last one is the cheapest. So, if it is possible to stop or reduce financing terrorists, which is intended by Timmermans, and, which is practically, implemented by the USA president Donald Trump, it might be necessary to get prepared for a much worse variant. I have often written that the first step for effective defence is the right diagnosis of the situation.

Reasonably thinking journalists and politicians say that Europe is in the state of a war with terrorism and in relation to it, it is necessary to use means adequate to this state. EU countries, however, are flinching because of the necessity of reducing civic freedoms. So, they are using half-means whose highest form is the emergency state, like in France. In the streets there are soldiers with weapons….and terrorists are attacking differently and in other countries. After my holiday I returned to Brussels. On the square next to the European Parliament, traditionally like every Tuesday, there were Belgian stalls. One can eat something quickly here. People were coming here. I came up to one of the stalls. Behind my back there were three uniformed soldiers with weapon ready to shoot. Everything as before, that is, without changes.